The night-walkers of Uganda

Bye bye Belgium?
Level 1
Elementary
Key words
1
Find the information
2
Look in the text and find this information as quickly as possible.
1. How old is Belgium?
2. What percentage of northern Belgians think Belgium will break up?
3. What is the main language spoken in the Brussels suburb of Halle?
4. What is the name of the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium?
5. What is the name of the French-speaking part of Belgium?
6. How long has Belgium been without a government?
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Bye bye Belgium?
Jon Henley 
November 13, 2007
For 177 years Belgium has been a federal 
kingdom with two languages, French and Dutch. 
Now some people think that the country is going 
to break up and divide into two different countries 
– Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking 
Wallonia. If you believe what Belgian newspapers 
and politicians are saying, the country is in the 
worst trouble since the dark days of the Second 
World War. Belgium has had no government for 
156 days. Having no government is not the end 
of the world but there is a very real fear that the 
end of Belgium is very near.
The people of Belgium seem to accept it. In 
the north, 63% of people think the country 
will divide. “This place is finished,” says René 
Vanderweiden, a telecoms engineer. “Maybe 
not now, maybe not in ten years’ time. But within 
my lifetime, I’d guess. The Flemings (Belgium’s 
Dutch-speaking majority) want to leave, and 
they’re not afraid to say that they want to 
leave. They’re impatient and they weren’t like
that before.” 
Joelle Rutten, a bookshop assistant, says the 
problems are the fault of the politicians. “We 
don’t need them,” she says. “Look at us – we’re 
all going to work, paying our taxes, nothing has 
changed. They don’t understand ordinary people. 
They argue about things that mean nothing to 
most of us. It’s a scandal! They don’t know what 
they’re doing.” 
But some politicians know exactly what they are 
doing. The deputy mayor of the Brussels suburb 
of Halle, Mark Demesmaeker, says that he “can 
no longer see the value of Belgium. There are six 
million of us Flemings, we work hard, we make 
money, and we could be independent. In fact, 
Flanders would be one of the wealthier small 
countries of Europe. Belgium is simply not good 
for us.” 
The main problem, says Demesmaeker, is that 
Halle’s French speakers “do not want to learn 
Dutch. They come here, they think Halle is part 
of Brussels, they walk into the shops and they 
say, ‘Bonjour’. Most don’t try to speak Dutch. 
Listen, I have nothing against Walloons. I often 
go to the French part of Belgium, and there 
they are very nice people, completely different. 
But here ... Well, they are a bit arrogant, I think. 
French was the main language and culture here 
for a long time, you see. And the Dutch-speaking 
inhabitants of Halle don’t like too many people 
speaking French here. They don’t like some 
of the classes in our schools being half-full of 
French children.” 
A local shopkeeper agreed with Demesmaeker: 
“This is Flanders here, and people must respect 
our language and our culture. If we go to 
Wallonia, we expect to have to speak French. It’s 
only right. And it’s only right that when Belgian 
French-speakers come here, they should speak 
Dutch. It’s just being polite. But most of them 
can’t speak Dutch or don’t want to speak Dutch.”
Last week Belgium’s Flemish politicians voted 
to break up the Halle district. The Walloon MPs 
walked out of the parliament in protest. Charles 
Piqué, the French-speaking minister-president 
of Brussels, says the vote was symbolic. “It is 
not the end, I don’t think, not yet. ... We have 
learned in this country, over the years, to avoid 
these kinds of situations. But this shows that the 
Flemish politicians want to increase tensions 
between the communities. And this is just the 
beginning of their demands. What happens next 
is critical.” 
Joelle Rutten, the bookshop worker, does not 
believe that Belgium is about to break up: “We’ve 
grown up in this country; it’s a nice country, a 
friendly country. It would be stupid, completely 
idiotic, to break it up just because a few stupid 
politicians cannot see sense.” 
Demesmaeker and his Flemish friends want 
a major reform of Belgium’s constitution. “A 
confederation – two independent states that